Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broadcast television, in which the television signal is transmitted over-the-air by radio waves and received by a television antenna attached to the television; or satellite television, in which the television signal is transmitted over-the-air by radio waves from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth, and received by a satellite dish antenna on the roof. FM radio programming, high-speed Internet, telephone services, and similar non-television services may also be provided through these cables. Analog television was standard in the 20th century, but since the 2000s, cable systems have been upgraded to digital cable operation.
The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Company. In 1932, RCA became an independent company after the partners were required to divest their ownership as part of the settlement of a government antitrust suit.
SCART is a French-originated standard and associated 21-pin connector for connecting audio-visual (AV) equipment. The name SCART comes from Syndicat des Constructeurs d'Appareils Radiorécepteurs et Téléviseurs, "Radio and Television Receiver Manufacturers' Association", the French organisation that created the connector in the mid-1970s. The related European standard EN 50049 has then been refined and published in 1978 by CENELEC, calling it péritelevision, but it is commonly called by the abbreviation péritel in French.
Composite video is an analog video signal format that carries standard-definition video as a single channel. Video information is encoded on one channel, unlike the higher-quality S-Video and the even higher-quality component video. In all of these video formats, audio is carried on a separate connection.
The RCA connector is a type of electrical connector commonly used to carry audio and video signals. The name RCA derives from the company Radio Corporation of America, which introduced the design in the 1930s. The connectors male plug and female jack are called RCA plug and RCA jack.
Component video is an analog video signal that has been split into two or more component channels. In popular use, it refers to a type of component analog video (CAV) information that is transmitted or stored as three separate signals. Component video can be contrasted with composite video in which all the video information is combined into a single signal that is used in analog television. Like composite, component-video cables do not carry audio and are often paired with audio cables.
A digital video recorder (DVR) is an electronic device that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card, SSD or other local or networked mass storage device. The term includes set-top boxes with direct to disk recording, portable media players and TV gateways with recording capability, and digital camcorders. Personal computers are often connected to video capture devices and used as DVRs; in such cases the application software used to record video is an integral part of the DVR. Many DVRs are classified as consumer electronic devices; such devices may alternatively be referred to as personal video recorders (PVRs), particularly in Canada. Similar small devices with built-in displays and SSD support may be used for professional film or video production, as these recorders often do not have the limitations that built-in recorders in cameras have, offering wider codec support, the removal of recording time limitations and higher bitrates.
Video in video out, commonly pronounced ( VEE-voh), is a graphics port which enables some video cards to have bidirectional analog video transfer through a mini-DIN connector, usually of the 9-pin variety, and a specialised splitter cable.
A tuner is a subsystem that receives radio frequency (RF) transmissions, such as FM broadcasting, and converts the selected carrier frequency and its associated bandwidth into a fixed frequency that is suitable for further processing, usually because a lower frequency is used on the output. Broadcast FM/AM transmissions usually feed this intermediate frequency (IF) directly into a demodulator that converts the radio signal into audio-frequency signals that can be fed into an amplifier to drive a loudspeaker.
A composite monitor or composite video monitor is any analog video display that receives input in the form of an analog composite video signal to a defined specification. A composite video signal encodes all information on a single conductor; a composite cable has a single live conductor plus earth. Other equipment with display functionality includes monitors with more advanced interfaces and connectors giving a better picture, including analog VGA, and digital DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort; and television (TV) receivers which are self-contained, receiving and displaying video RF broadcasts received with an internal tuner. Video monitors are used for displaying computer output, closed-circuit television and other applications requiring a two-dimensional monochrome or colour image.
A combo television unit, or a TV/VCR combo, sometimes known as a televideo, is a television with a VCR, DVD player, or sometimes both, built into a single unit. These converged devices have the advantages of saving space and increasing portability. Such units entered the market during the mid-to-late 1980s when VCRs had become ubiquitous household devices. By this time, the VHS format had become standard; thus the vast majority of TV/VCR combos are VHS-based.
TiVo digital video recorders encompass a number of digital video recorder (DVR) models that TiVo Corporation designed. Features may vary, but a common feature is that all of the units listed here require TiVo service and use its operating system.
The RCA Lyceum TV was a commercial monitor/receiver with a large input/output panel on the back, and a 20-foot (6.1 m) long grounded plug. During the mid-80s, RCA released the Colortrak 2000, a television identical to the Dimensia table-top model. Even though the Colortrak was considered the mid-range model, those bearing the name Colortrak 2000, were considered high-end, along with the Dimensia. The Lyceum TV, Dimensia, and Colortrak 2000 models all basically had the same chassis.
An audio/video receiver (AVR) is a consumer electronics component used in a home theater. Its purpose is to receive audio and video signals from a number of sources, and to process them and provide power amplifiers to drive loudspeakers and route the video to displays such as a television, monitor or video projector. Inputs may come from a satellite receiver, radio, DVD players, Blu-ray Disc players, VCRs or video game consoles, among others. The AVR source selection and settings such as volume, are typically set by a remote controller.
A digital television adapter (DTA), commonly known as a converter box or decoder box, is a television tuner that receives a digital television (DTV) transmission, and converts the digital signal into an analog signal that can be received and displayed on an analog television set. Some also have an HDMI output since some TVs with HDMI do not have a digital tuner. The input digital signal may be over-the-air terrestrial television signals received by a television antenna, or signals from a digital cable system. It normally does not refer to satellite TV, which has always required a set-top box either to operate the big satellite dish, or to be the integrated receiver/decoder (IRD) in the case of direct-broadcast satellites (DBS).
The XL-100 was a line of RCA solid-state television sets introduced in 1971. The "XL" stands for extended life chassis while the 100 refers to RCA's emphasis of 100% solid-state chassis. Initially the top-of-the-line RCA color televisions, they would become lower-end as the Colortrak and Dimensia series were introduced The original models replaced the RCA "Vista" and "New Vista" color television series. The XL 100 name was discontinued in the late 1990s.
Analog passthrough is a feature found on some digital-to-analog television converter boxes. Boxes without analog passthrough only allow digital TV to be viewed on older, analog-only TVs. Those with analog passthrough allow both digital and analog television to be viewed on older TVs.
Dimensia was RCA's brand name for their high-end models of television systems and their components produced from 1984 to 1989, with variations continuing into the early 1990s, superseded by the ProScan model line. After RCA was acquired by General Electric in 1986, GE sold the RCA consumer electronics line to Thomson SA which continued the Dimensia line. They are significant for their wide array of advanced features and for being the first television receiver systems to feature a built in computer, somewhat of an early incarnation of a smart TV, but without internet access. In 1985, RCA released the Digital Command Component System, a fully integrated audio system that permitted the full functionality of Dimensia audio components without a Dimensia monitor. The name "Dimensia" actually dates back to the early 1970s when RCA used the term for an enhanced spatial stereo effect which they called "Dimensia IV". The tagline for the Dimensia was The Next Dimension in Sight and Sound.
Colortrak 2000 was a brand name used for RCA's high-end television models produced from the early-1980s to the early 1990s. Colortrak 2000 was situated above the less expensive Colortrak line, but below the more expensive Dimensia line. As opposed to ColorTrak, ColorTrak 2000 models incorporated a comb filter, which provided a sharper picture. The Colortrak 2000 chassis was identical to the Dimensia tabletop model. Colortrak 2000s with BNC connectors were given the designation of Lyceum TVs. This TV set was also used with RCA's Digital Command Component System released in 1985.
Audio connectors and video connectors are electrical or optical connectors for carrying audio or video signals. Audio interfaces or video interfaces define physical parameters and interpretation of signals. For digital audio and digital video, this can be thought of as defining the physical layer, data link layer, and most or all of the application layer. For analog audio and analog video these functions are all represented in a single signal specification like NTSC or the direct speaker-driving signal of analog audio.
